On May 4, 1863, after three days of fighting in the fields of Virginia during the Battle of Chancellorsville, Corpral Hiram Fountain finally found a moment to write home to his family.
Hiram Fountain wrote: “I am writing now from the Battle field I am yet unharmed. We have had 3 days fighting. None of importance going on today. This is all I have time to write now.”
This week-long campaign during the Civil War left more than 30,000 American men dead, but Fountain, and his letter home, lived on.
JoAnn Miller, a board member of the Hillsdale Historical Society, acquired and transcribed the personal correspondence of Hiram and his brother Jerome Fountain in late November of last year. Edward Pitchell, a distant relative of the Fountains, stumbled upon a shoebox containing numerous letters and receipts from the brothers. After he realized the brothers were from southern Michigan, he contacted Miller to see if she had any interest in having them.
“I had to have them,” Miller said. “I love history, and I have a very special affinity for the Civil War. I said yes immediately.”
Miller sat down with the yellowed and worn parchment and began to transcribe the words and research the context for each letter. Miller said she worked tirelessly with the letters, something she described as a labor of love.
“As soon as I got these letters, I put everything else on hold,” Miller said. “Everyday I spent three hours scanning sentences with a magnifying glass to identify faded words. Some of the words were completely worn, but I was able to eventually figure them out by context.”
After several weeks, Miller had completely transcribed Hiram and Jerome Fountain’s numerous letters to their parents and friends back home. The finished letters were then posted to the Hillsdale Historical Society’s website as well as biographies of the brothers.
After peering through the letters, Miller discovered that Hiram Fountain enlisted in Michigan’s Fourth Infantry, spending most of his service in Virginia protecting Washington D.C. from possible Confederate attack. Hiram Fountain wrote his parents frequently, the subject of his letter primarily usually detailed daily life in his unit.
In one letter to his father, he details the drunken celebrations of his comrades and celebrator horse races in camp during St. Patrick’s day.
“One man ran his horse against a government wagon dislocating his shoulder,” Hiram Fountain wrote. “During to these accidents the performances were ended and the remainder of the day given to drinking and fighting. Many were drunken in the ditches and with their black eyes sneaking off to their quarters. I have no particular desire to see St. Patrick’s day celebrated again.”
Due to family illnesses, Hiram Fountain’s parents did not respond frequently. He understood their situation and constantly prayed for their recovery, but he still longed to hear from them.
“I will bring up now that I have not received a single thing from home in the shape of a letter in so long a time that I begin to feel quite contented without any,” Hiram Fountain wrote. “But you may write as often as you can.”
Hiram Fountain died on July 2, 1863 on the second day of fighting at Gettysburg.
His brother, Jerome Fountain, enlisted in the First U.S. Sharpshooters on August 26, 1861. He spent his service in Washington D.C., shortly before dying of malaria a year later. Jerome Fountain’s letters back home detailed life in his regiment, but most notably he often sent letters of life advice to his younger brother George Fountain.
In one letter, Jerome Fountain urges his younger brother not to enlist and to keep an eye on his girl.
“I hope that you will not be fool enough to enlist because we did,” Jerome Fountain wrote. “You had better stay at home and when you have the war fever, go up and see that pretty little black-eyed Susan instead.”
Miller said that the details in the letters, especially the early death of Jerome Fountain, truly show the pain the Civil War caused the American people.
“The history of our country is primarily one of wars,” Miller said. “The Civil War in particular was the most dreadful not in just what it did to our nation, but the great suffering it caused the families.”
Miller said that transcribing the letters and working with a piece of history has been the most organic way for her to understand one of the most significant events in American history.
“Holding these letters, especially one that was on the battlefield,” Miller said, “was like having a connection to the Civil War and what it truly meant for ordinary people.”
